On black list & donor list - Goa miner among BJP, Cong contributors

New Delhi, Oct. 27: Among the seven businesspersons named by the Centre in the Supreme Court in the black money case, five are associated with a Goa miner that had been a donor to both the BJP and the Congress, according to information provided by the two parties to the Election Commission.

Timblo Pvt Ltd, whose managing director Radha S. Timblo and four other directors have been named by the Centre, donated nine times to the BJP between 2004 and 2012. The amounts add up to Rs 1.18 crore.

Timblo donated thrice to the Congress, amounting to a total of Rs 65 lakh, between 2009 and 2012.

The figures, analysed by an NGO, the Association for Democratic Reforms, are based on income statements submitted by the two national parties to the Election Commission.

Repeated calls to BJP spokespersons Sambit Patra and G.V.L. Rao and the Congress’s Shakeel Ahmed to corroborate the information went unanswered.

According to the Election Commission’s website, the BJP’s donations from Timblo saw a steady rise over the years. Between 2004 and 2007, the party received Rs 38 lakh. The amount touched Rs 80 lakh in 2011-12.

The BJP’s donation report for 2011-12 also lists a Rajkot-based Pankaj Chimanlal Lodhia, who donated Rs 51,000. One of the seven named in the government affidavit is Pankaj Chimanlal Lodhiya, a Rajkot-based bullion trader.

Timblo’s donations to the Congress went up five-fold since 2009-2010, when it received Rs 10 lakh, to Rs 55 lakh in 2011-2012.

Political parties are required to submit to the Election Commission the details of donors who have made donations above Rs 20,000 in a financial year. Parties provide the name, address and PAN of the donor, the mode of payment and the amount contributed.

A company incorporated under the Companies Act can donate up to 5 per cent of its profits in a year, and the company is bound to disclose the amount in its profit-and-loss account.

Earlier in the day, the BJP said today’s list was only a “beginning” and more names would be disclosed later. The Congress asked the government not to indulge in “political titillation”.

Preneet Kaur, the minister of state for external affairs when the UPA was in power, went on record to say she held no foreign accounts. “I had replied (to an income tax notice) and denied any such allegations. I never had and do not have any bank accounts overseas,” she said.